HELP GOD FIND YOU AND OTHERS
(Luke 15:1-10)
Today's Gospel shows the joy of
finding the lost by God. With the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin,
Jesus opens the heart of God to make us visualise the great rejoicing over the
repentant soul.
I wish to reflect more on the
lost sheep. The sheep is living. The sheep must have realized that it has lost
its way. It must have known that it has become vulnerable to the wild beasts.
It must have dawned on the sheep that the protection of its shepherd is now
missing. It must have become clear to it that the monitoring and regulations
were for its own good. It became helpless and just like the coin waited to be
found. But the wait is not a passive wait. How did the sheep wait is the
question?
I want to believe that the sheep
stopped grazing and feeding on the dangerous atmosphere. It became
uncomfortable with the evil environment. The sheep started running about helter
skelter. Every sound and movement became suspicious. The sheep opened it's ear
more. It longed to hear from those that never strayed. It longed so much to
hear the voice of the shepherd and would pray to be placed under the check of
the shepherd even with the rod than being devoured. The sheep never stopped
crying out, bleating harder till it draws attention.
This is a great lesson from the
sheep that was lost. We are the sheep of the Lord's pasture. We mean a lot to
God. He seeks you out personally and feels bad when we stray. When we stray,
does it occur to us that we have missed our path? Do we cry out in prayers for
God to hear us and bring us back? Do you care to make God happy by returning to
Him?
Indeed, God seeks you and will be
happy to find you. Stop playing hard to get. It is to your own detriment. If
only you can help God find you, you will certainly understand what it means to
say that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Do not enter into the one corner
of spiritual danger, into the risk of guilty of conscience, into the calamity
of divine isolation.
The Lord wants you to make Him
happy by leaving your old wrong ways. He has lit his lamp in search for you.
Cry out in prayer for mercy, run to him in reconciliation, flee from sinful
comfort zones. Do not be stubborn in the
desert of sin. Your helper is the Lord. Help Him to help you up in that your
problem. Yes! That spiritual sore in your heart, that evil habit. Open it up to
Jesus. He will find you, save you and heal you with those around you and
reinstate you.
Let us Pray
Dear Lord Jesus, you have come to
call sinners, you continue to call out, to search and seek in order to find me.
I keep hiding in my sins forgetting that even the darkness is not dark for you.
Help me Lord to appear before the light you lit to find me. May I no longer
wallow in darkness nor in the fearful desert of evil manipulations. Give me the
grace to help me help you find me through Christ our Lord. Amen
God bless your Thursday (31st
Week, Ordinary Time)
Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh
No comments:
Post a Comment